FINADORY
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Founder & CEO, FINADORY

Maxime Boulesteix

I build and operate tech & media assets.

I run FINADORY, an independent tech & media group. We build media brands, platforms and services. Then we make them grow.

I have spent my career in complex environments. Finance. Energy. Media. Sectors with many rules, where every project demands precision. That is where I feel most at home.

Trained in strategy, a developer since my teens.

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Portrait of Maxime Boulesteix

Paris

7

new businesses designed for Royal Canin (Mars group), Nexans and the EDF group

6

brands and subsidiaries in the FINADORY portfolio

14

my age when I wrote my first line of code

Between strategy and code

I started coding at 14. I grew up with open source, data and hackathons. They taught me one simple thing: an idea is only worth something if it works.

I still build today. I design architectures, run our servers and integrate artificial intelligence into our products.

I speak the language of developers and the language of executive teams. Between the two, there is often a business to build or to grow.

What I bring

Creativity

Seeing what is missing.

Business

Finding the model that makes it viable.

Technology

Choosing what will hold at scale.

Execution

Ship fast. Test early, adjust quickly, accelerate when the market responds.

Development

Understanding code as well as business. To work with technical teams, challenge them and move faster together.

Building in complexity

Rules put most people off. I find them interesting.

Finance

In banking, every project sits within a strict regulatory framework, across several countries at once. It taught me to move fast without ever compromising on compliance.

Energy

With the EDF group, I designed offers at the heart of regulation: energy performance contracts, the French tertiary decree, solar energy buy-back, collective self-consumption. Each rule shaped a business model.

Media

Press law, intellectual property, artificial intelligence. The sector is reinventing itself. We build our media with these rules in mind, from day one.

The more complex the ground, the more valuable what you build on it.

Career

2015 – 2020 · Paris, Hong Kong

BNP Paribas

I started on digital & innovation projects, then joined the Strategic Initiatives team of International Financial Services’ executive management: digital transformation, data and artificial intelligence, international development, synergies between group entities.

Then Hong Kong. Chief of Staff to the Asia-Pacific CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management. The region’s strategic projects: partnerships, business development, digital, innovation. Steering the business in China, Japan, Taiwan and the region’s other markets. And a constant link with the Group’s executive management and with BNP Paribas Asset Management’s executive management in Paris.

For our clients

New businesses for large groups

Established groups. New businesses. With FINADORY, we support them from business design to market launch.

Royal Canin Mars group

Business design and product strategy for the launch of a DNVB in the United Kingdom.

Nexans

Starting from a cable manufacturer’s business model. Bringing out two new product and service businesses to enrich the offer and diversify the activity.

EDF group

Dalkia

A new type of energy performance contract for renovating commercial buildings under the French tertiary decree.

EDF France

Compte Solaire, for buying back the solar energy produced. Ma Batterie Solaire, batteries provided and financed through the resale of energy.

EDF Solutions Solaires

Collective self-consumption, to share locally the energy produced by solar panels.

Technical expertise

What I build with.

Languages
TypeScript, JavaScript, PHP, SQL
Frameworks & product
React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS. Full-stack applications, server-side rendering, REST APIs.
Data
PostgreSQL, Supabase. Relational modelling, collection, normalisation and deduplication pipelines.
Artificial intelligence
LLMs in production via API, agents and MCP servers. Generation and editorial control pipelines.
Infrastructure
Linux servers, Nginx, Apache, PHP-FPM, SSL certificates. Continuous deployment with GitHub.

A few questions

Where do I feel most at home?

When everything is still to be done. A blank page where anything is possible. Or a system so complex that everything has to be reinvented. In both cases, the same standard: decide fast, execute well.

What drives me?

The moment an idea becomes a product.

How do I make decisions?

Quickly. Based on facts. While keeping the freedom to correct course.

What did banking teach me?

Rigour. The long view. And that a project must always prove its value.

What did code teach me?

Honesty. A program works or it does not. There is nothing in between.

What do I bring to an executive team or a board?

Three cultures in one person: the strategy of a large group, the speed of an entrepreneur, the precision and curiosity of a developer. I read a P&L, challenge a roadmap and assess an architecture. And I know how to move from decision to execution.

When should you call on me?

When something needs to be launched, accelerated or reinvented. And you need someone who thinks the strategy through, then builds it, to develop something new or bring something different.

In ten years?

The same questions as today, on bigger ground. Which market is poorly served? Which product can answer it? How can it be built faster than others, or with a distinctive edge?

Advisory

  • GameWard

    Advisor

    2018 – 2022

  • Pyxo

    Advisor

    2018 – 2020

Education

Double master’s degree in finance, specialising in risk management, and in marketing.

  • NEOMA Business School

    Master’s in Marketing

  • IAE, University School of Management

    Master’s in Finance, specialising in risk management · First-year master’s in General Management

  • Audencia SciencesCom

    Bachelor’s in Communication & Marketing

There is always something to build.

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